4/22/2013

Last week was mentally exhausting. The Boston bombing on Monday was horrific. The terrible explosion at the plant in West, Texas was catastrophic. But what I also found very disturbing was the way a lot of normally rational people reacted

on "social" media. Facebook and other media was in flames with heated opinions. Awkwardly enough, I was lured into the debates trying to defend Muslims and our President

from folks ready to march on the White House fully armed to execute the President of the United States... and then expel all Muslims immediately. Lordy!

A few who are always ready to blame Obama for everything that goes wrong, and gives their "Lord Jesus Christ" credit for their "pure" thinking, started blaming Obama for allowing Muslims to continue to immigrate here, and also for allowing imprisoned terror suspects prayer mats in their cells...claiming it's because "secretly" he's one also, plotting against America...and mind you....this was before anyone even knew who was to blame for the bombings. The hysteria was alarming. One fundamental Christianfriend of a friend wrote on the friends blog about my previous post on our bloody history and Hypatia, "Sure, keep writing about "atheist" and bad Christians asif that is promoting world peace...Prejudice masquerading as truth!"Say what? Too much tea this morning? Didn'tsleep well with your over-loaded AK-47 in bed with you? Ancient peaceful Pagans were not "atheist," they worshiped all sorts of gods and goddess's and they didn't pretend they were perfect...or horrible!I did remind some that Liberals didn't blame George

Bush when 9/11 happened on his watch, we pulled together,

not apart. Neither did we blame all Muslims. Just the

ones responsible for the insanity and their devil leader.Of course, (secretly) I do blame George for goingafter Saddam before Osama.

I met a family of Muslims and some of their relatives over 15 years ago who owned a small convenience store in my former neighborhood. We became friends and talked about a variety of things, including religion. They told me they had immigrated here because Islamic radicals were causing strife in their native country and they did not want their children exposed to it, especially their daughters. These conversations began at least five years before 9/11. They werejust as appalled and saddened by 9/11 as I was...maybe more so. They knew how Americans would think of them fromthen on because of their religion. They were right.*****This is what I really think about religion....Hate filled Jews, Christians, and Muslims worship a wrathful god who would allow them to slay sons and torture their enemies, the same as the deity they obey "supposedly" did...and will continue to torment all those he "damns" in hell fire and brimstone for eternity. Pure Bullshit!Peace loving Jews, Christians, and Muslims worship a loving, comforting, and forgiving God who created earth for us to live our lives in peace.

"Blessed Be The peacemakers," Jesus said, Yea!

All others who worship various deity's are just as authentic and justifiable members of humanity...as long as they worship idols of peace.

Buddha and Hindu Gods among them.

Those who do not worship or believe in any supreme being...but are productive contributors to making our earth a wiser and more peaceful, healthy, and safe place to survive our precious lives are just as worthy human beings as those who do worship a divine being of some sort....and there is quite an assortment of idols and prophets out there and NO one on earth knows if any of them are correct...ornone of them.

The fact that so many can not see this truth is what continues to cause wars, terrorism, and fanaticism...aswell as "holier than thou" rants on social media.

HUMANITY SHOULD WISE UP FOR OUR CHILDREN'S AND THEIRCHILDREN' S SAKE BECAUSEHISTORY PROVES MASS HYSTERIACAN LEAD TO HORRIFIC ACTS!

If you don't believe it...look up whathappened in Massachusettsin 1692 when Holy Puritans"thought" their town had beeninvaded by the devils witches.Don't think it couldn't happen todayjust because we have better technology.There are still a lot of radical "religious"thinking humans out there.Last week proved it onboth sides of the fence!

4/13/2013

believed to be between
40 and 60 years old when she was martyred by zealous Christians
in 415 A.D.

History reveals ancient popes and bishops tortured

to death atleast as many innocent
martyrs

as "heathen" Pagans did.

***

Hypatia was a
Greek Neo-Platonist philosopherwho
was the first

full-documented
woman in mathematics. She was also an

astronomer,teacher, editor, inventor, and
musician.

She became head
of the Platonist school at Alexandria and
taught philosophy and astronomy there. She was of the
intellectual school of the 3rd century thinker Plotinus, which
encouraged logic and mathematical study in place of empirical enquiry
(experiment instead of theory), and strongly encouraged law in place of nature.
She was educated at Athens. She
imparted the knowledge of Plato and Aristotle to any
student interested; her pupils included pagans, Christians,
and foreigners. Because of self-assurance and ease of manner which
she had acquired in consequence of the cultivation of her mind, she frequently
appeared in public in
the presence of the magistrates. She evidently felt neither abashed or
inhibited going to an assembly of men only.

It is disputed
if she ever married. I found it noted, that like many geniuses, Hypatia likely had a
"prickly" personality. That "historian" used as evidence the only anecdote that offers
an insight into her personal life, which has her hurling her "menstrual
rags" at a lovesick student and saying, "They demonstrate nothing beautiful about carnal desire."

That little temper fit response lends itself to all kinds of interpretation, but I'll refrain from a "thorny" feminine opinion. I have had experience with and totally comprehend PMS.

No written
work, widely recognized by scholars as Hypatia's own has survived to the
present time. Many of the works commonly attributed to her are believed to have
been collaborative works with her father, Theon Alexandricus. This kind of
authorial uncertainty is, unfortunately, typical for female philosophers in
Antiquity.

It still makes me wonder why we seem to have so many more details about thewayback B.C. Pharaoh's of Ancient Egypt than we
do about the early Christian centuries including the life of Jesus. We
allegedly know of all the Pharaoh's dalliances, especially the last,
Cleopatra....names, dates, mistakes, places and "affairs."

Hypatia is
known with certainty to have edited a number of works in collaboration with her
father, who was the last director of the Museion that was the center
of scholarship in the classical world...kinda like Harvard and Oxford are today I suppose. Among those
works were a commentary on the 13-volume Arithmetica by
Diophantus. She also edited Theon’s commentary on Euclid's Elements, which was
likely the basis for every geometry text for the next fifteen centuries.

Contemporary
5th-century sources do identify Hypatia of Alexandria as a practitioner and
teacher of the philosophy of Plato and Plotinus, but, two hundred years later,
the 7th-century Egyptian Coptic bishop, John of Nikiu, identified her as a
Hellenistic pagan and alleged that she was devoted at all
times to magic,astrolabes,(early sextants) and instruments of music,
and beguiled many people through her Satanic "devotion." Not
all Christians were as hostile towards her as John of Nikiu or the monks who
killed her: Some early Christians used Hypatia as symbolic of Virtue,
somewhat similar to the way they venerate the "Virgin" Mary
today.

Since she was
trained in the philosophical schools of Plato and Plotinus, she
was admired by most of her contemporary scholars for her dignity,virtue, and
wisdom. Of the anger she provoked among Christians, Scholasticus, a Greek
Christian church historian of the times, wrote, "Hypatia ultimately fell
victim to the political jealousy which at the time prevailed.The Roman
Governor, Orestes, was known to seek her counsel, and a rumor spread among the
Christian community ofAlexandriain which she
was blamed for his unwillingness to reconcile a disagreement with Bishop
Cyril."

A mob of
Christians gathered, led by a minor cleric named Peter, whom
Scholasticus described as a fanatic. They kidnapped Hypatia on her way home and
took her to a Church called Caesareum.The Caesareum in Alexandria was
a temple conceived by Cleopatra to honor her lover, Mark Antony, and
believed to be where she committed suicide. It was converted to a Christian
church in the late 4th century and was the headquarters of Bishop Cyril. The angry mob stripped her naked and murdered her. Scholasticus is interpreted
as saying that, while she was still alive, Hypatia's flesh was torn off using
oyster shells, the Greek word is "ostrakois," also used to
describe brick tiles on the roofs of houses as well as to denote pottery
shards. Afterward, the men proceeded to mutilate her, and finally burn
her limbs. When news broke of Hypatia's murder, it provoked great public
denouncement, not only against Bishop Cyril, but against the whole Alexandrian
Christian community. The sins of a few indeed can affect all.

Scholasticus closed his account of what happened to

Hypatia with this lament:

"Surely
nothing can be farther from the spirit of Christianity

than the
allowance of massacres,fights, and transactions of that sort."

School of Athens

isan
immense painting in
the ApostolicPalace inVatican
City, it is one of a series of four frescoes
painted by Raphael, representing branches of knowledge, this
one is dedicated to philosophy as a path to
knowledge and especially relates
to understanding the causes that drive knowledge.

All of the philosophers shown in the fresco traditionally sought
knowledge through an understanding of root causes, tying back to the title and
theme of the fresco. The painting is considered by some to be Raphael's
greatest masterpiece...but he did not leave a description and it is unknown
whether he alone devised who would be included and how they would be portrayed,
or whether Pope Julius II, who commissioned the painting, contributed
his "disputable" input. It's certainly evident in the Vatican
that Julius II commanded the greatest masters of the day to decorate his "private" opulent palace of
"worship" floor to ceiling.

Murky Shades of Egyptian Pharaohs & Roman Caesars!

Those who can be identified with some certainty are: Plato,
Aristotle, Socrates, Pythagoras, Euclid, Ptolemy,
Zoroaster, Raphael, Sodoma and Diogenes. Other identifications are more or less
speculative, including whether the only woman in the group is indeed
Hypatia.

"Stands to reason," I thought when I marveled at that wall
and contemplated the huge fresco in one of the museums in the Vatican, this
one known as Stanze di Raffaello. The
building is in the shape of a Greek cross which some have suggested was
intended to show a harmony between Pagan philosophy and Christian theology. Hum.....

Detail of Hypatia on a fantastic huge wall painting by iconographer, Mark Dukes, located in an Episcopal church inSan Francisco
depicting a lot of the never officially proclaimed "saints" line dancing. When I
first viewed it, I thought surely Mark must have had a snappy Texas country tune in his brilliant head while he
worked.

If you want to boggle your mind with master frescoes,
exquisite marble sculptures, and the results of the ultimate egomaniac,
infamous Pope Julius II, nicknamed "The Fearsome Pope" as well as
"II Papa Terribile" ... take a tour of the Vatican museums.

I have not thought the same about dogma ever since I viewed
truths I had not imagined existed prior to that trip to Italy to
critique for myself

some of the greatest artistic creators and thinkers in
history.

There are many interpretations written of who the
ancient philosophers, artists, and astrologersreallywere, just as there are many
versions of who the Divine Creatorreallyis.We are very fortunate indeed
that most of us are free in this day and time to make up our own
minds...though some are still not allowed to do so...such as the young
girl from Pakistan whose brother recently hacked her with an ax 15 times trying
to kill her as a matter of "honor," as he had slayed the younger man she ran
away with to escape her abusive tyrant old husband her parents had forced her to marry
when she was 14 and he was 60. It is apparent neither her parents nor their religion consider her brother did anything wrong, they still blame her for surviving and not
being willing to conform to their archaic beliefs.

*****

Hypatia Quotes

"All formal dogmatic religions are
fallacious and must never be accepted by self-respecting persons as
final."***

"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is
better than not to think at all."

***

"Life is an unfoldment, and the
further we travel the more truth we can comprehend. To understand the
things

that are at our door is the best preparation
for

understanding those that lie beyond."

***

"In fact, men will fight for a superstition quite as quickly
as for a living truth-often more so, since a superstition is so intangible you
cannot get at it to refute it, but truth is a point of view, and so is changeable."***

"Fables should be taught as fables, myths as
myths, and miracles as poetic fantasies. To teach superstitions as truths is a
most terrible thing. The child mind accepts and believes them, and only through
great pain, and perhaps tragedy can he be in after years relieved of
them."

***

In this painting,Philosopher
Of Alexandria, by 15th century Italian Renaissance artist, Masolino da Panicale,
Hypatia is depicted with a halo, implying she was venerated as someone
"special." I surmise she was just
as often misrepresented and defiled by various ancient popes and clergy as Mary
Magdalene was, but I think not by brilliant master artist's, because they almost
always depicted her beautiful as they did Mary M.

In the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries in countries all over the world,
Hypatia was still portrayed any where from being a satanic evil witch, to
being a loving, saintly, and virtuous teacher.She has remained ever since her martyr the
subject of countless essays, books, plays, and several
movies.

Most 21st century scholars now consider Hypatia to have

been a "Universal Genius" born at a time pagan and any other woman were not believed to be as brilliant as men
were who converted to

Christianity to preach the message they muddled so ignorantly

of Jesus..."The King Of Peace"...who thus became an inspiration for men to commit horrible crimes in his name...just as
Mohammed still is being an inspiration, an ancient concerned Prophet

who initially wanted to escape the condemnation of Jews
and Christians of his era and formed his own opinions and flock, still
misinterpreted horribly by present day terrorists who believe slaying
those who don't agree with you is a matter of "honor."

Oh dear God!...if
there is a Supreme Creator...how “IT” must weep tears of torment at
humanity's continued ignorance!

4/09/2013

Painting by Rowena Morrill depicting Isaac Asimov enthroned

with symbols of his life's work.

Isaac Asimov(1920–1992)

Isaac Asimov was born Isaak Judah Ozimov, on January 2, 1920, in
Petrovichi shtetl, near Smolensk, Russia.His father and mother were
Orthodox Jews. His family immigrated to the United States when he was three
years old and he grew up in Brooklyn New York.

He is best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one
of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than
500 books and an estimated 90,000 letters and postcards.Asimov
began reading science fiction pulp
magazines at a young age in the confectionary his family owned.His
father, as a matter of principle, forbade him reading the pulps, as he considered
them to be trash, but Isaac persuaded him that the science fiction magazines
had "Science" in the title, so they were educational.

Asimov was a claustrophile:... he enjoyed small,
enclosed spaces. In the third
volume of his autobiography, he recalls a childhood desire to own a magazine
stand in aNew York City subway station, within
which he could enclose himself and listen to the rumble of passing trains while
reading. At some point, he obviously rationalized writing was more his calling.

Isaac graduated from high school at 15 to enter Columbia University. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in 1939 and went on to get his M.A. and Ph.D. from the same institution. In 1949, Asimov began a stint at Boston University School of Medicine, where he was hired as an associate professor of biochemistry in 1955. He eventually became a professor at the university by the late 1970s. Yet even with his impeccable academic credentials, writing for general readers was to be the professor's passion.Asimov was also known for writing books on a wide variety of subjects outside of science fiction, taking on topics like astronomy, biology, math, religion and literary biography.

Asimov suffered a heart attack in 1977, and had triple bypass surgery in December
1983. When he died in New York City on April 6, 1992, his brother Stanley
reported heart and kidney failure as
the cause of death. Ten years after his death, his widow, Janet Asimov's edition of
Asimov's autobiography, It’s
Been AGood Life, revealed that the myocardial and renal
complications were the result of an infection by HIV, which he had contracted from a
blood transfusion received during his bypass operation.

He had stated during a televised interview that he hoped his ideas would live on past his death; his wish has come to fruition.

Asimov won more than a dozen annual awards for particular
works of science fiction and a half dozen lifetime awards.He also received 14 honorary doctoratedegrees
from universities. Asimov was a long-time member and Vice President of Mensa International, albeit reluctantly; he described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs". He took more joy in being president of the American Humanist Association.

Asimov was an intriguing genius...below are some of
his quotes.

“The saddest aspect of life right now is that
science gathers

knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.”

***

“Never let your sense of morals prevent

you
from doing what is right.”

***

“If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to
live,

I wouldn't brood, I'd type a little faster.”

***

“The most exciting phrase to hear in science,
the one that heralds the most discoveries, is not "Eureka!" (I found it!) but, "That's
funny...”

***

“Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the
transition that's troublesome.”

***

“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant
thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the
false notion that democracy means that my
ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'”

***

“Properly read, the Bible is the most potent
force

for atheism ever conceived.”

***

“Violence is the last refuge of the
incompetent.”

***

“I write for the same reason I breathe ...

because if I didn't, I would die.”

***

“Those people who think they know everything

are a great annoyance to those of us who do.”

***

“Self-education is, I firmly believe,

the only
kind of education there is.”

***

“While he lives, he must think;

while he
thinks, he must dream.”

***

“If knowledge can create problems,

it is not
through ignorance that we can solve them.”

***

“If I am right, then religious
fundamentalists will not go to Heaven, because there is no Heaven. If they are
right, then they will not go to Heaven, because they are hypocrites.”

***

“I prefer rationalism to atheism. The question
of God and other objects-of-faith are outside reason and play no part in
rationalism, thus you don't have to waste your time in either attacking or
defending.”

***

"The true delight is in the finding out rather than in the knowing."***"Suppose that we are wise enough to learn and know-and yet not wise enough to control our learning and knowlege, so that we use it to destroy ourselves? Even if that is so, knowledge remains better than ignorance."

“Once, when a religionist denounced me in
unmeasured terms, I sent him a card saying, "I am sure you believe that I
will go to hell when I die, and that once there I will suffer all the pains and
tortures the sadistic ingenuity of your deity can devise and that this torture
will continue forever. Isn't that enough for you? Do you have to call me bad
names in addition?”

***

"I am not a Zionist, because I don't
believe in nations, and because Zionism merely sets up one more nation to
trouble the world. It sets up one more nation to have "rights" and
"demands" and "national security" and to feel it must guard
itself against its neighbors."

***

"There are no nations! There is only humanity.
And if we don't come to understand that right soon, there will be no nations,

4/02/2013

"Yawning is something we mostly stifle — after all, it’s embarrassing to yawn in the face of another as if to announce that you didn't get enough sleep or, worse, that you’re bored. That’s a shame — because researchers have discovered that the humble yawn is a major contributor to mental alertness… keeps our brains properly cooled (literally)… and helps us to shift from one activity to another, even to adjust from one timezone to another. They recommend using yawning consciously as a tool to make life better. For example, yawn soon after awakening to rev up your brain for the day or at night to help calm yourself and promote sleep."

Patt Lind-Kyle MA www.pattlindkyle.comVisit her website, she offers interesting information, and a free MP3 relaxation tape you can download. The flowing graphics are soothing and the massaging music mixed with the sound of trickling water... mesmerizing.

*******

Hope you learned something interesting you didn't know... and yawn more often! Who knew it was good for you?